Owari No Seraph One and a Half: The Taming of the Human
by Nitebreaker
Summary: Okay, people. This came to me at the 11th hour, and, like most stories, wouldn't let me go until I did something with it. So here's the something. This story takes place somewhere between chapters 4 and 5 of "The Taming of the Demon." A perfect example of how things-realities-can diverge so easily in hypertime. Dedicated to my good friend, lilly11594, for her encouragement.
1. Chapter 1

The Taming of the Human, Chapter 1: Territory

….

 _Okay, loyal fans. This came to me, an AU of an AU, and I was encouraged by my good friend, lilly11594, to publish it. It fits in—sorta—somewhere between chapters 4 and 5 of "The Taming of the Demon," and is a perfect example of how worlds diverge in hypertime. This is a what might have been of a what might have been…had certain things happened differently._

 _But, differently or not, all things seem to come home, sooner or later, don't they?_

 _I dedicate this story to lilly11594, for her encouragement. Thank you, Lilly! (And check out her stories on Wattpad!)_

 _Enjoy!_

… _._

Owari no Seraph: The Taming of the Human, Chapter 1: Territory

Chapter 1: Territory

…

The next day, they were eating in the commissary when Asuramaru overheard something interesting from a table three aisles away.

"He's cute, I'll give you that," said one of three women sitting at the tables. Asuramaru thought they all looked like they were each wearing a solid inch-thick slab of makeup. He smiled a nasty smile when he remembered the human expression, "war paint." These ladies definitely gave off the "vibe" of being "on the hunt." Asuramaru's ears twitched, slightly, and he frowned.

At first, when Asuramaru had first materialized in this physical plane of existence, they both had been concerned about the demon's ears (which protruded slightly from beneath his hair) and his tiny horns, both of which were usually the mark of a demon. But as it turned out, while Yu'd been out on patrol, humans, especially human females, had begun wearing such artificial extensions as a fashion statement. It was a big relief for both him and Maru, who otherwise would have been confined to Yu's apartment.

He focused his senses on the trio at the table. Yes, they were _most definitely_ eyeing Yu. Something about their attention made him do a slow burn.

"Who's that with him?"

"Dunno. I heard somebody say she's his cousin or something."

"I heard that's a guy.'"

"Oh, come on. No guy looks _that_ good _._ Hell, most _women_ don't look that good. _"_

Shrug. "Dunno. That's just what I've heard."

"Nice. I always did like a man in uniform."

"I heard that's a guy. The other one, I mean."

"C'mon. That soldier can't be twenty."

"I heard that's a guy. The one in the dress, I mean."

"Hm. I think soldier boy, there, will do. For the first one this week, at least."

"I still think that's a guy."

"Well, then, good. No competition."

"How?" said one of the women, excitedly. "How you gonna do it?"

The one who'd spoken smiled smugly. "Eh, a little cleavage is usually all _I_ need." Though not looking at them, Asuramaru glanced at her. She did indeed have an impressive rack.

"Yu?" he said, keeping his voice low _,_ "move back from the table a little."

"Huh? Why?" He was in mid-bite of a rice cake. Now he stopped and looked at his demon companion.

His eyes narrowed. Uh oh. Maru had _that_ look on his face, the one he always wore right before he got either or neither or both of them caught up in some military grade level of mischief. "What are you up to, Maru?"

"Saving your life. Now just do exactly as I tell you, and save the questions for later, okay? Move back a little more." And he got up from his seat, leaving his sushi-and his banana! Yu's eyes almost bulged out of his head. Maru _never_ left an uneaten banana in his wake! This _must_ be important.

The Black Demon casually sauntered over to him...and slid down into Yu's lap. Took his surprised face in his hands. "Now put your arms around me and close your eyes, _dummy._ " At Yu's surprised look, "Just _do_ it, _stupid_! I'll explain why later! And _hurry_! We don't have all day!" And he closed his lips around Yu's in a sizzling kiss, all the while keeping his keen sense of hearing focused on the other table.

"What th-*? He's kissing his _cousin_?"

"I _know_ I heard that's a guy!"

"I've never seen a liplock like _**that**_ in my entire life!"

" _That's a guy!"_

"Oh Em Gee, they're gonna Do It right there on the table! _"_

"Ew, gross!"

"I am _so_ outta here!"

Maru broke away from Yu, after his senses confirmed that The Enemy had stampeded from the room, and looked after their retreating backs, with a certain sense of professional satisfaction. Stupid cows. Think about playing with _his_ human, would they? Think again, _bitches_. Then he stopped, and took in Yu's angry expression. All the other patrons in the restaurant were staring, eyes wide, some stopped in mid-chew. One woman's mouth was stopped in mid-bite of a cake. "Okay. Wanna tell me what _that_ was all about?"

….

"What do you mean, 'female sharks'?" They were back at Yu's apartment.

"How many interpretations of that are there? You were being targeted by heavy estrogen-powered ordnance, and the only thing standing between you and emotional devastation," sighed the Black Demon, histrionically rolling his eyes, "was me. Your humble demon servant." He was currently sitting on the bed, leaning back on one hand, left leg swinging over the right. Yu was half hypnotized by the movement. How could any _guy_ have legs like _that_? There oughtta be a law. Then he jerked his head away, when he saw Asuramaru noticing his look. Maru grinned. He so loved toying with Yu this way. This was almost as good as bananas.

"I got the 'demon' part, but 'humble' and 'servant'? Where did _those_ come in? Oh, never mind." He swallowed audibly. "Th-thanks. I guess."

"Gee. Such _enthusiastic_ appreciation. Not sure I can handle all that." Yu just glared at him.

Asuramaru figured he'd pumped all he could out of _that_ well. Time to move on. He got up and went over to where Yu was sitting at the small faux wooden table. "Yu, I'm bored. Come play with me." He took his host by the arm and tugged.

"Can't, Maru," said Yu, without looking up, "I gotta pay these bills. You like bananas, don't you? Well, this is the only way to keep 'em coming in."

Still, Maru pulled on him. He couldn't exert his full vampire strength on his host, due to the amended curse, but he _could_ be damn _insistent._ "C'mon, Yu. Just for a little while." His large red eyes lit up as he considered the possibilities. "You like playing chess or cards with me, don't you? Even though you always lose."

"Maru. Look. I just can't right now, understand? I gotta do this."

Pout. "You just don't wanna be around me anymore. I'm just a burden to you." Maru sure could pout, when he put his mind-and lips-to it. His lower lip actually trembled slightly. Yu knew he had just been shot down in flames.

But still he fought on. "That's not it, and you know it. C'mon, Maru. A little mercy, here."

But Maru was all out of mercy. Just like every other day of his 1,200 years of life. Then inspiration hit him. "Come take a bath with me." Yu's apartment, like many rotating servicemen's, particularly those whose rotation would carry them back into Level 3 Stages of danger and above, was equipped with a spacious tub that could double as a Jacuzzi.

Level 3 and 4 Stages were among the most dangerous there were; every amenity the culture had was made available to those servicemen and women. The only one more dangerous-Level 4-was jokingly said to be reserved for those with strong suicidal ideation.

There was no Level 5.

"Wh-what?" The request jolted Yu out of his concentration. "What?"

Maru pulled on his arm some more. "A bath. You know, that thing where you take off all your clothes," and here he hugged himself tightly, and let out a very small, almost inaudible sigh, almost like a gasp, "an'...get all... _wet…_ "

Yu put his hands over his ears. "Not...lis...ten...ing. Not...lis...ten...ing…"

"C'mon, Yu. You know you never win these kinds of arguments with me. So c'mon, already. You may as well surrender to the inevitable. It saves time, and you _do_ have those bills to pay." He paused, a mischievous expression on his face. "Or is it that you don't really believe I'm a boy? Well, here, I'll prove it to you." And he reached up and unsnapped the top retainer of his dress, pulling it down around his waist…

"Maru! _Don't do that!_ " Yu had turned his head, and now was covering his eyes.

"Aahhhh...soooo...you _don't_ believe I'm a boy. Well, I guess I can see why you'd be so _scaaared_ …" He let the word drag out a bit.

Yu slammed his pen down on the desk and stood up, still not looking at Maru. "I," he began, "am _not_ scared. It's just...you're my _guest,_ dammit! It, it, I just, it just wouldn't be right, that's all!"

But Maru was ready for this one. "Well, then, if I'm your guest, it's _your_ responsibility to make me feel at home, isn't it? So come on." He turned, clutching the top of his dress to his upper torso. "I'll even go draw the bath. Baths are safer than showers, you know. Ask me why."

"Why?"

"Can't drop the soap!" And he stuck his tongue out at a groaning Yu and pirouetted into the bathroom. Shortly, Yu could hear the sound of the water running.

 _I can't believe I actually fell for that._

Quite against his better judgment-or even his bad judgment-Yu found himself at the bathroom door, wearing his bathrobe-and his swim trunks. He braced himself and went in.

"Hey, no fair! _I_ don't wear a swimsuit! _You_ don't either! Besides, you can't get fully _clean_ in those things!" Maru reached up to the sides of his trunks…

"No, no, now stop it, Maru!" He swatted, half-heartedly, at the demon's questing fingers. "Hands off! I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were-* Never mind." He was studiously avoiding looking at his demon guest, who had clasped his hands in front of his chest and was jumping up and down in the water, practically squealing with the delight of anticipation. "Okay, okay, already!" He turned his back on Maru and slid out of the trunks.

"Niiiice tush, Yu!"

"Shut-*" But he strangled the rest of the command. One thing they'd learned, in Asuramaru's time in the physical realm, was that if Yu gave him a command, no matter what it was, Asuramaru was bound to obey it for at least twenty-four hours. While twenty four hours without any sound from Maru might sound like heaven on the surface, Yu was ever mindful that his guest was, just that: his _guest._ _And_ he'd promised to be his guest's _friend_ … and friends don't tie a gag around you all day, no matter how annoying you get. He slid the trunks the rest of the way off, then made to back into the bathtub, to Asuramaru's sounds of delight. _What did I do to deserve this?_

A pair of slender arms were flung around him from behind. "Oh, Yu! I'm so glad you...came!" The ever-so-slight emphasis he put on the word did not go unnoticed by Yu. "I was starting to feel lonely, just me in this big ol' tub." He continued to press, squishily, up against Yu from behind, making Yu all the more nervous.

Yu knew, intellectually, what Asuramaru had, _down there,_ below his abdomen. It was the same thing he had, basically. At least, he guessed it was. It only differed in the details. (But if that was true, why was his natural scent so, so... _enticing_? Why was his body so _soft?_ More mystery.) But he was really uncomfortable with empirical verification of anything.

But what did Maru have upstairs? Several times, when he wasn't being observed (he thought), he'd glanced at Maru's upper torso, at the part of his dress over his chest. There was definitely _something_ up there, some sort of swelling that looked to be firmer, and...dare he think it? More _pert_ , than, than any simple "man boobs."

But right now, the owner of whatever was up there was slipping and sliding his soapy way across Yu's back. Yu couldn't really tell what Maru's upper chest was like, not from feel alone, not with his back turned. But... _Is he doing this deliberately? Is he_ _trying_ _to get me all worked up? To turn me on?_

' _Cause it is_ _so_ _working._

"Here. Just because you were so nice to come join me, I'll... _do you_...first." Again, that ever-so-slight emphasis on certain words. _Now, I_ _know_ _he's up to no good._ But then a little voice in the back of his head responded, _What am I saying. He's Asuramaru, a Black Demon, who hates my guts. He's_ _never_ _up to any good. Am I supposed to be surprised?_

Maru grabbed the sponge and began to rub Yu's back with it, across, up and down, sideways-Yu was beginning to wonder if the demon was just trying to find an excuse to keep at this longer-when Maru said, "Here. Now for the front." And he began moving the sponge across Yu's chest, laying his head down on Yu's back, actually _moaning_ slightly. It sounded genuine, to Yu. He'd tied his hair up ( _that wonderful hair)_ before getting in the tub, and Yu found himself wishing he hadn't...

And, although he was using a sponge, he was holding it in such a manner that it was less _washing_ and more _groping._ "Uh, M-Maru?" Yu was feeling an awful lot of hand-to-chest contact there.

"Just getting you clean, Yu, darling. After all, you do want to be _clean,_ now, don't you? And your chest," suddenly, his breath hitched just a tad, "such a... _delectable_ chest...just isn't as smooth as your back...it just takes a bit more work, that's all." And he kept on with his washing / copping a feel with a kind of languid speed that indicated he was perfectly content to do this all night.

Unless he thought of something better to do. Yu resolutely refused to think about what that might be.

Especially since this _male_ demon was _right behind him_ , apparently getting all _hot and bothered_ by Yu's _naked body_...Yu braced himself to explode out of the tub at the slightest poke, er, _provocation_.

But just as Yu was about to suggest that maybe they _find_ something _other_ to do, say, _outside_ the tub, maybe with their _clothes on,_ the demon pulled away from him slightly, and handed him the sponge. "Your turn, Yu. Wash my back, would you, sweetie?" And he turned his back on Yu.

 _Er, "sweetie"?-_ thought Yu. But okay. At least, this way, he could sorta control things a bit better. At least, he thought he could.

He took the sponge, added some soap, and began to move it back and forth across Maru's bare back. Back and forth, up and down, sideways, circular...and it began to dawn on him that he was _actually enjoying this._

This whole misadventure was just three different dimensions of wrong.

"Don't forget the front, honey." Sweat broke out on Yu's forehead, sweat that had nothing to do with the heated water. _"Honey," now, is it? God help me._ Why was he going along with this? But he gathered the sponge together, and, holding it in such a way as to minimize actual physical contact with his bath partner, moved it around across Maru's chest. Maru's breathing began to hitch. Of course, thought Yu, it was all an act.

Wasn't it?

Primarily due to the way he was holding the sponge, but also because of the half-trance he'd put himself into, he really couldn't tell that much about the topography of Asuramaru's chest, and he was exerting himself quite a lot to keep from finding out. "There," he said, moving away, "That's got y-*"

"A little more. I don't feel really clean yet."

"Rrrrgh. Alright," and he moved the sponge back and forth…

"Got an erection yet, Yu?"

He jumped as though stung. "Gaah! Maru!"

"Come on! Just answer the question, yes or no?" His mouth quirked in even more of the mischievous smile it had been in all afternoon, he started to turn around there in the tub… " _I_ do. Wanna see?" He made as though to stand up.

"Aaaah! You keep back, Maru! Sit back down! This has gone far enough!"

"So...do you?" Clearly, the little demon was going to keep on until he got some kind of answer.

Yu knew he couldn't lie to the empath. "Y-yes, I, I do. Okay? Satisfied?" Then he felt a disturbance in the water, as though something hand-shaped was fumbling near his crotch… " _Oh, no! Enough! I have HAD it! This bath is officially over!"_ And he hitched himself away from Maru, climbed out of the tub.

"Oh, come on, Yu!" pouted the demon, "I just wanted to see how _big_ it is!"

"Keep wondering!" He pulled his clothes on.

More of that same mischievous smile. He crossed his arms on the side of the tub and rested his chin on them, eyes bright. "You show me yours and I'll show you mine."

"En Oh. Don't get waterlogged, now. It'll be bedtime, soon…" Then he closed his eyes as he waited for the demon to make some remark related to "bedtime."

"Oh, phoo. I'm coming out, killjoy." Yu glanced back around at Maru, who was climbing out of the tub on the far side.

How could any _guy_ have a _butt_ that _cute?_

 _To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2: Friends

Owari no Seraph / Seraph of the End: Chapter 2: Friends

….

 _I don't own, you know._

 _A little touch of what might have been._

…

Chapter 2: Friends

The next morning: Yu was doing his best to forget last night's adventures, and in this he was, for once, aided by his demonic guest. Instead, Asuramaru simply sat, silently, on his side of the small table in the breakfast nook, just outside the kitchenette. _Probably,_ thought Yu, _planning his next move._ He wasn't wrong.

So, almost as a self-defense maneuver, he brought his napkin up and wiped his lips. "You know," he said, "Sometimes I worry about you, Maru."

Maru paused in mid bite. "Worry? About me? What about?"

Yu pointed with his spoon at Maru's cereal bowl. Actually, it was more properly named his "banana bowl," as it consisted primarily of sliced bananas with a little milk and cereal thrown in just for looks. "Well, your diet. I mean, you're wearing a physical body now; it needs a certain amount of upkeep. And about all you eat is bananas. I can't help but think that sort of thing just _can't_ be healthy for you."

Maru narrowed his gaze at the crazy human, trying to figure out if this was some kind of crazy human game. But it didn't seem to be. There was no sign of abnormal brain wave or heart signature. Yu appeared to be genuinely concerned about his guest's health. "Soooo….what are you suggesting?"

"I'm going to start cooking healthier meals. You could use the roughage. _And_ perhaps a greater cereal-to-banana ratio in your bowl." Maru immediately clutched his bowl to himself, practically snarling in defense of his favorite food. "Now, Maru. Don't be that way. I'm not saying _cut out the bananas_ , just _add more cereal._ Look, I _know_ you don't want to get all constipated; believe me, that's a miserable experience. So, healthier meals, a better balanced diet-God help us all if you turn up diabetic. Do demons even get diabetic? Never mind; _you_ might. And I don't want that for you. An ounce of prevention, and all that.

"So come on, Maru. Work with me here. I'm only trying to help you."

Asuramaru was about to make some retort when his empathic senses told him the crazy human was speaking the exact truth. This _wasn't_ some weird kind of mortal punishment; _he really meant it._

That took all the wind out of his sails. "O...kay. Just promise me you won't take away my bananas!" Without realizing it, he'd wrapped a protective arm around his bowl. Asuramaru loved bananas more than life itself.

Yu reached over and gave the demon's hand a brief squeeze, surprising Asuramaru immensely. His senses told him Yu wasn't even aware he'd done that. "Promise. Now. For lunch. What sounds good?"

"Uhm...bananas?"

 _Well, I guess I should have seen that coming._

…..

Lunch: "What's this crap?" Maru was gazing, suspiciously, at the bowl in front of him. He was beginning to rethink the "weird human punishment" bit.

"Beef shigureni. With steamed rice. Not normally considered a lunch item, but it looked intriguing. Can't eat take out all the time, you know. It's pretty hot, so you might wanna blow on it a little. On the other hand, you tolerate heat pretty good. But anyway. Go ahead and dive in. Here. Like this." And he showed Asuramaru how to eat the meat with a fork. "Forks are better for this kind of food, anyway."

Hesitantly, Maru tried a bite of the meat. It slipped off his fork, so Yu got up and went over to his side of the table. The Black Demon watched him suspiciously. What was the crazy human up to now?

But Yu simply reached over and, using a table knife, began to cut up the meat for him. "There," he announced, finishing up, "try that. That should make it a bit easier."

But Maru's suspicions weren't totally allayed. "Yu," he asked, keeping his eyes on the crazy human. "Why did you just do that?"

"Hm? Do what?" Yu had resumed eating.

"You know what. You just cut up my food for me. Why did you do that?"

Yu was chewing his beef. "Huh?" He swallowed. "You were having difficulty getting it on your fork. This was faster, was all."

Suddenly, Asuramaru slammed his utensils down on the table, making Yu jump. "I'm not a child, Yu!" he shouted. "Stop treating me like one!"

There was a dead, awkward silence. Then Yu said, "I'm sorry, Maru. I, I guess my 'only trying to help' went a bit further than I intended it to go. I apologize."

Asuramaru glared at him, fully intending to reject the stupid human's feeble attempt at an apology, when he felt something change inside him. Almost like ice melting in a glass of warm tea… "I...I guess...I mean...okay." He dropped his eyes, placing his hands in his lap. "I should be the one offering an apology, Yu. You were, like you said, only trying to help. Just...just like everything else you've...done." His voice cracked, and he got up and rushed off, running away from the small table, and into his favorite "alone" space, the half-bath adjoining the bedroom. Yu watched him go, concern in his expression.

What was wrong now?

That night, after a dinner of grilled tilapia, Yu was lying quietly in his bed, trying to still his mind in preparation for sleep. He heard a sound from the far side of his bed, down where Maru's futon was.

"Maru?" he asked, rolling over to that side of the bed. "You okay, over there?"

Maru made no reply, but Yu's now-focused sense of hearing seemed to catch a sound very much like a sniffle. "Maru? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Shut up and leave me alone." That cinched it. That was what Maru _always_ said when he _wasn't_ fine.

He got up and went around to Maru's side. Sat on the bed by the little demon's futon. "Maru, look. Tell me what's wrong. I'm sure, whatever it is, we can fix it, somehow."

"That's the problem with you humans!" Maru practically shouted, "Think you can fix everything!" Then he turned, savagely, away from Yu, his arm up to his chin. Again, Yu heard a sniffle. Now a sob.

Sighing, Yu got down on the floor, on the edge of Maru's futon. Lay down alongside the demon, his hands clasped behind his head. Maru half-turned over. "W-what are you doing, human? Get off my futon!"

"No. Not until you tell me what's made you cry."

"I'm not crying!"

Yu turned on his side, propping his head on his elbow, and studied him. "Well, let's see. Your eyes are leaking, your breath is hitching...and your _nose_ is running." He got some tissues from the nightstand and wiped both tears and snot from the demon's face. Surprisingly, Maru didn't object. "Here. Blow your nose. Now come on. Tell me what's wrong, won't you?" he asked gently.

"I...I'm cold. Th-that's all. This, this is how we Black Demons react when we g-get cold."

"Uh huh. Well, I've got a cure for that." He got up, and picked Asuramaru up in his arms.

"What! What are you doing, human?! Put me down!"

"Oh, I will." And he put the protesting demon down...on his bed. When Asuramaru started to get up, he pointed at him and said, "Stay put."

Suddenly, Asuramaru's butt was frozen to the mattress. Oh, no. What was the crazy human going to do to him now? Payback for all those pranks and teases?

But instead, Yu just gathered Asuramaru's own blankets and spread them over Maru's body, tucking him in with the blankets that were already there, gathering them all around the demon, packing him in, until he was under nearly a solid foot of blankets. "There," he said, "Now you _surely_ shouldn't be cold, what with all those blankets. Any more, and I'll need a forklift to uncover you, come morning." Asuramaru was still looking at him with a mixture of fear and anger. "Oh, right. Okay, you don't _have_ to stay. I just wanted you to hang on long enough for me to show you what I was talking about." And he got back in on his side, turned on his left side, and, once again, tried to get ready for sleep.

"You...you don't mind if I...stay here...tonight?" There was something in the demon's tone of voice that Yu couldn't identify. But he didn't zip back down to his futon...well, of course. All the blankets were up here now, though Yu supposed it would have been no biggie for the Black Demon, with his vampire strength, to simply replace them where they had been.

Except he still would have been cold...

"No, Maru, I don't mind. I don't want you to be cold." _And I don't want you to cry._

 _I'll do everything in my power to keep you from crying, ever again._

Wait a minute, his mind said. Where had _that_ come from? Well, the mind is subject to strange thoughts, there in the twilight country just before sleep.

The next thing Yu knew, the Black Demon had slid up next to him, spooned up against his back, and slipped an arm around Yu, underneath Yu's own arm, pulling them both together in a most intimate embrace. "Maru, what-?"

"You said I could stay."

"Oh. Well, uh. Okay." He felt Maru stiffen slightly, then… "You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"You don't mind me staying up here with you?"

"No, I don't. Like I said, I don't want you to be cold."

"Like...like this?" And Yu knew he was referring to the position, with Maru's arm around him.

"No, Maru. It's like I said. I don't want you to be cold."

It was a most peculiar sensation he got from Maru, as though the Black Demon wanted to say or ask something, but couldn't, for some reason. Then, "okay."

 _To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3: Admissions

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Admissions**

Owari no Seraph / Seraph of the End: The Taming of the Human

….

Chapter 3: Admissions

…

 _Another installment of what might have been. See what you think._

 _The beginning of this story is told in "The Taming of the Demon," if you want to know. Jus' sayin'._

…

The next night, Yu was watching a movie on his large-screen TV in the apartment's living room. He was sitting on the couch in front of the TV, eating a snack of cut cauliflower and broccoli, slathered in ranch dressing when Maru wandered in. The Black Demon seemed to be keeping pretty close to him lately; it was a little unnerving. "What're you watching?"

"It's a movie about the early days of the Vampire Wars."

"No doubt written by humans, for humans."

"Actually, it's written by vampires, told from their point of view. It's really interesting."

"Really? _You_ think something written by vampires is _interesting?_ "

He paused in his eating. "Well, of course. Why? You, of all people, should know I'm not the vampire-phobe I used to be."

Maru plopped down on the couch beside him, eyes fixed on the screen. Yu gave him another look. Seemed like the demon had sat down a little closer than Yu would have thought he would have. "What's it about?" Without waiting for an invitation, he plucked a ranch-dressing-soaked cauliflower head from Yu's bowl and popped it in his mouth.

"Well, I never would have thought that the vampires put so much _thought_ into the keeping of the human children. I mean, I was one, but I wasn't in any position to know a whole lot about the whole arrangement. It doesn't make any bones about the situation; doesn't try to make it seem like some fairy tale or something. I mean, we were basically cattle, only we produced blood instead of milk. And," and here he paused, and Maru waited for him to continue. He didn't need his empathic powers to tell him that what Yu was about to say hurt to say. "I guess...I can kinda see how it-the harvesting of the children, I mean-was a necessity for both sides. We humans were on the verge of becoming extinct, and that would have made the _vampires_ extinct. They wouldn't have had any source of blood. So yeah, it...was a massive undertaking. I guess my eight-year old self just blew all that off in my hatred of vampires. But yeah...they, the vampires, really didn't have any choice but to do what they did.

"But I never realized what a huge and desperate undertaking it all was. Those underground cities didn't build themselves. I'm wondering, myself, who this 'first progenitor' was." He glanced up; Maru was looking distinctly uncomfortable. _Change the subject, Yu._ "Of course, I'm sure a lot of this is fictionalized, artistic license, and all that, but it goes into a lot of detail over the internal politics of the cities where we were kept. It's easy to see how the Split came about, once the wars were over with." Referring to the political stresses that had brought about the formation of the Western State and the Eastern Empire. "This part's about our ol' pal, Ferid Bathory. I heard they tried to get him to play himself in the movie, but he refused."

"I'm surprised. I would have thought he'd have jumped at the chance to be the idol of millions. Guy's a narcissistic jerk, to put it mildly."

He looked at Maru, surprised. "You knew Bathory?"

"We crossed paths. He once tried to possess my sword, to force me to submit to him."

"Glad he didn't succeed."

Asuramaru smirked. "He succeeded in holding the sword...for about two minutes." Another smirk. "He lasted longer than anybody else I've rejected."

"Hm." Yu was altogether too familiar with Maru's mental powers, and what those powers could do. By comparison, being burned alive would be a pleasant sensation. "I almost feel sorry for him. Almost."

Maru was squinting at the screen. "Can't see it very well." He scooted over closer to Yu, squinted again. "Hey! The screen's curved! It's a curved screen!"

Again Yu stopped chewing, again glancing at his demon seatmate. "Well, yeah. Supposed to be better for three-D viewing. Don't tell me you haven't noticed that before?"

"No, I haven't. I don't pay that much attention to your ridiculous human gadgets. But it's no wonder I can't see it very well. You've got it turned so it's focused on you!"

"And this surprises you because…?"

Asuramaru sniffed, crossing his arms. "It doesn't surprise me at all, now that I think of it. It's inconsiderate, so I guess it's typical of you."

Yu sighed. When Maru got like this… "Here. Let's swap places. Then you'll be in the 'focused' part."

"No, no, no. I wouldn't, for a moment, even _dream_ of running you out of your own spot. I'll just settle for sitting _way over here_ and letting your solipsistic mortal machine permanently scar my retinas." Yu was looking at him, so he caught the two ever-so-brief sideways glances Maru made at him.

Yu rolled his eyes. He started to move over. "Here. Just move over here-*"

"No, no. It's fine. I'm just a lowly demon, after all _._ Don't discomfit yourself on my account." Another two quick glances at Yu. What was Maru after, anyway?

"You _could_ , I guess, move a little closer..."

Maru immediately hitched over.

"...except that would put you closer to me, and you've told me how being close to me makes you want to puke…" The brief look of disappointment on the demon's face told him all he needed to know. Maru reluctantly moved back. "C'mon back, Maru. If you need one, I'll just get you a barf bag."

Without another word, Maru hitched even closer to him than before, so that their hips were touching. "Still can't see very well," he grumbled. Then he reached around and picked up Yu's arm, the one on his side, and draped it over the back of his neck, moving in so close that his head was actually lying on Yu's shoulder. He settled in, twisting and turning until he got comfortable. "There. This is better."

Yu thought for a second, going over the way this scenario would look to an outside observer: himself, seated on the couch, with his arm draped around the Black Demon, with Maru's head nestled against his shoulder. _Hm. To anyone else, looking at the two of us like this, one would almost think…we would almost look like..._

 _Nah. No way._ He glanced down at Maru, to see how he was liking the show so far…

The little demon was fast asleep, there in Yu's arms.

….

Yu was late getting in the next day, due to some paperwork complications. The first chance he'd got, he'd gone off from everyone else and called in. Maru had answered, recognizing the caller ID. " _Late? How late?"_

"I don't know how late, Maru, but I'm sure it won't be long. Just get one of those box lunches we prepared-*"

" _Those horrible things?! You expect me to eat those?!"_

"This is what we made 'em up for. One of them will do for tonight." The Black Demon had no idea how to cook. His only attempt so far had resulted in a grease fire requiring the use of the emergency fire extinguisher, along with some fast talking by Yu, to the complex's fire control division, upon their arrival. "Look, it's only for one night. I'll be in, it's just I'll be late, that's all." Why should the demon be worried about a thing like that?

He didn't notice his fellow soldiers looking at him oddly. They knew Yu was a bachelor, in a single-dwelling apartment. Who was he calling?

But that was a question whose answer would have to wait for another time.

It was later than he thought when he finally managed to make it in. He'd stopped by the store to pick up a special order item, plus some extra blankets for his guest.

Maru was nowhere in evidence when he went in. He shrugged; the Black Demon knew better than to go out in public without Yu.

So Yu sat down on the edge of the bed, and pulled his boots off. Next came the clothes-he took especially good care of his uniform; dry-cleaning bills were on the moon!-got out his sleep pants, showered off, and came back into the bedroom, still brushing his teeth. Hm. Still no Maru.

He finished up, rinsing his mouth out, and donned his sleep pants. Got into bed, all the while wondering where Maru was. He wasn't on his futon.

There was a suspicious looking bulge underneath the covers on the other side of his bed.

He turned the covers down just enough so he could see a thatch of fine, purple hair, and a protruding "V" shaped ear. "Maru?" he whispered. The ear twitched. "Maru. Wake up." Another ear twitch was the only response. "C'mon, Maru. Look. I bought you some more blankets, AND I got you a wireless electric blanket. You can dial it up to as warm as you'd like."

 _Twitch. Twitch._

Two possibilities occurred to him, both along with their accompanying negations: he could order the Black Demon out of his bed-but if he did, then Asuramaru would know this sort of thing got under his skin, and would let him have no peace doing similar things that he hadn't _exactly_ ordered him _not_ to do _,_ or…

...or there was the distinct possibility that the little guy really _was_ cold down there, in which case, Yu would feel like a heartless monster ordering him back down to his Futon of Misery. There'd be time enough in the morning to explain the electric blanket to the demon then.

And he _had_ said Asuramaru could stay up there. With him. In his bed.

So, with a sigh, he got in on his side of the bed, on his left side, as he'd come to habitually sleep.

And, as he'd halfway expected, he no sooner got settled in but Maru rolled towards him, once again wall-papering himself up against Yu's back and slipping his arm underneath Yu's and around his chest, pulling in close. He was either asleep or pretending to be. "Warm," he murmured, cheek rubbing against Yu's shoulder. "So warm." Yu didn't bother saying anything. Nothing to say.

Besides...this wasn't...really all that bad.

Completely without his being aware of it, his fingers entwined themselves through Maru's, and they both drifted off to sleep.

His last, subconscious thoughts in the waking realm: _He's my own mischievous little demon, and I never know what he'll do next. I just know that, for some reason, he's become very precious to me._

…..

In the following days, Yu became more and more nervous. Maru hadn't played any tricks on him or tried to prank him for two solid weeks now. What was the demon up to? Whatever it was, it must be plenty potent, to require this much build-up.

And each night, regardless of the miracles of modern technology offered him, the Black Demon seemed to find his way into Yu's bed. Yu became accustomed to waking up with the feel of Maru's arm around him, holding him close. When asked why, when he had a perfectly good electric blanket he could go to, he usually answered that demons and technology didn't get along too well. Or...something that sounded equally bullshitty.

Then one day, Yu came home to find Maru waiting for him. "Uh, Yu? I, er, I have something for you."

 _Uh oh,_ thought Yu. _This is it. The biggie._ He braced himself, both physically and mentally. "Oh? What is it?"

"It's...this." And the Black Demon suddenly produced a small, square porcelain dish, with a fitted glass cover over it. "Here. Take it. It's yours." And he leaned back as far as he could, his face scrunched up and turned to the side, almost, Yu thought, as though he were expecting the dish to explode.

 _Okay,_ thought Yu, _What is this? Fried dog turds or something?_ But when he cautiously opened the chilled dish, he saw…

...banana pudding. With bananas in it. "Uh, Maru? Are...are you giving this to me?" He couldn't believe it. Asuramaru, the Black Demon, The Banana Fanatic, actually _giving away bananas?_

"Yeah," he said, his face still averted. Yu realized he was doing his best to not look at the dish in Yu's hands. "I, I hope you like it."

"Did...did you make this?"

Maru's still-sideways head nodded. "I looked up the recipe on the internet. It, it wasn't hard to follow." Still not looking at the dish.

"Maru?" The demon only turned his face around just far enough to see Yu. He didn't want to see the bowl of... _gasp_...banana pudding that was now forever out of his reach…?

Except Yu was holding out two spoons. "Here," he said, handing one to Asuramaru, "Let's share."

He even "accidentally" nudged a few banana slices over into Maru's side of the bowl.

But in the days to come, Maru still remained morose. He once called Yu at work, asking where the replacement garbage bags were. Yu could hear him coughing and sneezing. "Maru, what are you doing?"

 _"I'm trying to do some, some cleaning. (Cough, kachoo!) Where did you say you kept those garbage bags?"_

…

The next morning: Asuramaru still seemed awfully subdued, to Yu. "Maru? You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm...fine." But he was actually picking at his breakfast cereal, even though it contained his favorite sliced bananas. Yu had poured in some extra cereal, explaining that Maru was getting the same amount of bananas, just more cereal. Privately, he was carefully measuring Maru's sugar and cholesterol intake; that was another thing to be concerned about.

"Did you get enough sleep last night?"

"I guess so." Yu was wondering if the Black Demon had run out of ways to torment him, and so had found that life held no meaning for him anymore. Yu felt the need to do something, anything, to get Maru out of this funk.

"Say," he said, as inspiration struck him, "I've got an idea. How about we go to a movie this evening? I hear they've rebuilt a few spare rooms into an old-style working theater."

Asuramaru looked up from his almost-uneaten cereal bowl. "A movie? What's that?"

"It's kinda like Tri-V, but bigger and better. I hear they've got some really old Godzilla movies in; you'd love those."

"Gods-whozis?"

….

"You never did explain this Gods-whozis to me." The movie theatre wasn't packed, as a lot of people preferred to stay home and stream in something new, but there were a few in evidence. This was more a social event than anything else, anyway.

"He's a monster supposedly resurrected by mankind's atomic bomb testing. He routinely rises up out of the sea and eats Tokyo or fights another monster or something." He saw Maru's eyes light up with anticipatory joy. "But," he cautioned, holding up a finger, "nobody dies. At least, not in this one."

Asuramaru deflated somewhat. _Well,_ he thought, _I can fantasize, I guess._

…

The movie began at five-thirty, just in time for Maru to discover, to his horror, that the outside food court did not carry fruits of any kind, let alone bananas. But Yu had just brushed aside this devastating revelation and ushered them, Maru still griping, into the shadowed darkness of the theater. _Perhaps things will become more civilized,_ thought Maru, _in the near future._ But thinking about that only made him wonder, all the more, about his own personal future. Was he doomed to stay here, on this planet of fools, with this one particular human his sole connection back to a sane-albeit a lot emptier-universe?

No bananas in the food court? How much worse could it be?

But once inside, alone in the darkness, shrouded in the shadows, Yu produced a pocketful of bananas. Maru found himself having to resist the urge to kiss him. That would just never do.

The movie wasn't bad, he thought, providing you made allowances. After all, the humans, at that time, had only had so much to work with. But of course, he had to pretend to think it was awful, it was horrible, the actors didn't know which hand was their right hand and which hand was their left, etc.

And the whole while, Yu just sat there and took it. He'd ordered a large box of something called "popcorn," though, try as he might, Asuramaru hadn't seen it pop once. He'd specified it to have "extra butter," and had offered it to the Black Demon. Asuramaru had tried some, but didn't expect the salt content, which set him to coughing. Yu had to pat him on the back, then listen to his usual complaints about how the "crazy human" was "trying to kill him," etc. Yu had long since gotten used to such fits from his demonic houseguest. After that episode, Maru had limited himself strictly to his stash of bananas.

And he wondered. Wondered about his dream.

But then, he found himself doing that a lot, lately.

That evening, back at the apartment, Yu was hanging up his cape in the cloakroom when Asuramaru came up to him. "Yu?"

"Hm? Yes, Maru?" He folded the collar just so; it wouldn't do for it to take a set.

"I, I." Something seemed to be warring within the Black Demon's soul. He looked down at his hands, the fingers of which were fumbling with each other. Yu looked up. What was this? "I, I just wanted to say I had a really nice time tonight."

Yu stopped what he was doing and gave him a long, measured look. "Okay, who are you, and what have you done with Asuramaru?"

"What?! Can't I just tell you I had a…" Pause, with an audible gulp. "...nice time?"

"No."

"Oh. Well, uhm." He rubbed the side of his face. "But I did! I, I really enjoyed being out with-I mean, seeing that old movie...with...you." Then he ran off, back to the half-bath. Yu heard the click of the door being locked.

 _Now what was_ _that_ _all about?_

 _To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4: Longings Not Expressed

Owari no Seraph / Seraph of the End

The Taming of the Human, Chapter 4: Longings Not Expressed

….

 _Don't own, etc. Now let's get on with things._

 _Another look at how things might have been._

…

Chapter 4: Longings Not Expressed

The next morning: Maru seemed to have even less appetite than usual. He took spells of shoveling down his banana slices, but would occasionally stop, as though thinking about something. Yu had never seen him act this way before. "Maru, something's wrong. Won't you tell me what?"

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine."

"You're not sick or something, are you? I mean, if you are, if you don't feel well, I'll get you into the infirmary, somehow." The infirmary, there at the base, didn't treat people without picture ID's, and, of course, being a demon accidentally brought over from the astral plane, Maru had no such item. "I'll bullshit you in somehow." He dabbed at his chin with his napkin. "Worse comes to worst, I guess I could always tell 'em we're married! Ha!"

Maru's reaction was startling: he sat back in his chair, his spoon clattering to the floor, and stared at Yu with a wide-eyed, shocked expression on his face. He looked exactly as if he'd been struck by lightning. He stared at Yu for a moment, then sprang up and zoomed off to the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

Yu was finishing up with his breakfast, wondering if he should place Maru's banana-plus-a-little-cereal bowl in the fridge, when the Black Demon came out and sat back down at the breakfast table. "I'm sorry, Maru. I didn't realize that would offend you that much. I won't do it again."

"You...you didn't offend me," said Maru, almost too low to be heard. "It...I…" He looked up at Yu with an expression Yu had never seen on his face: a kind of _longing_. He picked up his cereal bowl and reached it over the table to Yu. "Would...would you...would you like...some of my bananas, Yu?" Again with his face averted, as though trying not to see something horrible.

Yu took a long, long look at his guest. "Okay, Maru." He took the cereal bowl and put it in the fridge. "Come on over here." And he took him by the hand and led him over to the couch in the living room. Sat down beside him, turned towards him, with one leg folded up underneath him, his arm on the back rest. "Now. Talk to me. Something's wrong-don't try to tell me differently-and I want to know what it is. 'Cause whatever it is, it's eating you alive, and I won't have that. It's hurting you. I won't have that, either. So talk to me. What's wrong? And don't say 'nothing'." Just as the demon's mouth had opened to say that very word.

Asuramaru sat on the couch, hands in his lap. He wouldn't meet Yu's gaze. "I...I had a dream the other night. The, the night when I was, was 'cold.'"

"Was it a nightmare? Did you have a bad dream?"

"No. No, it wasn't a bad dream." He suddenly turned to Yu, with an almost _frightened_ look on his face. "It was a _good_ dream! It was the best dream I've ever had! Or even imagined anyone _could_ ever have! And I know my dreams, Yu."

"A _good_ dream? Maru, you're suffering. You're unhappy. How could a good dream do this to you?"

The demon was silent for such a long time, Yu was beginning to wonder if he was going to answer at all. Finally, he said, still not looking up, "It...It was about me. And you."

"Me and you? What about me and you?"

Another long silence. Then, "Yu, I...I don't know if I can or should say the rest." He put his hands over his face.

"Er...was it a _sexual_ dream, Maru?"

"Not…" _swallow,_ "totally. In it, we-I can't believe I'm saying this-we were...married." The last word was whispered so low, Yu almost didn't hear it.

" _Married?_ "

Now Maru looked up at him. He smiled a kind of weak smile, and it looked to Yu as though his eyes were watering, slightly. "Yeah, I know. What a joke, huh? You and me? A human and a demon? I mean, c'mon!"

Yu looked stunned. He hadn't expected anything like this. "But...I mean, okay, it, it was a good, no, a _great_ dream. But only a dream. Why would it make you _this_ unhappy?"

"Because I wanted it!" shouted Maru suddenly, looking up to the ceiling. "I wanted that dream! We-you and I-we were so _happy!_ And I wanted that, that _happiness!_ I've...I've never really known what it was like to _be_ happy! Ever! And, and there you and I were, so _happy!_ And I wanted to, to _live in that dream_! I wanted _it_ to be my _real_ reality, not, not _this!_ " And he looked down at his hands, now outstretched over his lap. He spread his hands, right to left, indicating everything. He squeezed his eyes shut, putting the heel of his hand to his forehead. "I...I tried so _hard_...so hard to keep my eyes closed, to not wake up. But...I, I couldn't." He sniffled, wiping his nose on the back of his hand. Yu started to get up to get some tissues, but something told him this was not a good time to get up off the couch. His guest-his _friend_ -his-? was hurting, and it would not be good to leave him.

Maru was openly crying now, tears running down his face. "I, I _tried._ I tried to be, to be the, the...partner, the companion, whatever you want to call it, that I should be, that I _would_ be, if that dream were real." And Yu remembered how the demon had taken up cleaning, and even going so far as to attempt cooking. He'd offered Yu what was, to him, the best of what he had to offer. He'd made banana pudding, he offered Yu his bananas from his very own cereal bowl. "I...I didn't know what else to do. I tried so hard to make it...to make it... _happen…_ to make it be _real_..." He put both hands to his face, sniffling mightily. "I...I don't know any, anything else to do." _Sniff!"_

Yu sat, thoughtfully. Well. _This_ was certainly unexpected. Then, "Maru...all that would only make sense if you were...were in love with me. For real.

"Are you?"

Asuramaru didn't answer, but just kept trying to control himself. He sniffled and sniffled.

Suddenly, he shot to his feet, eyes wild. He turned in the direction of the half-bath, his cubby hole.

But Yu was on his feet. "No, Maru, wait! We can't just leave this! We have to talk this out-*" He had his hand on Maru's arm.

" _Get your hands off me, human!"_ shouted Asuramaru, yanking his arm away.

But he'd forgotten his vampire strength, and both had underestimated just how firm a grip Yu had on Maru's arm. Yu was thrown across the room, his head hitting the wall with a sickening _crack!_ He slid down the wall, to lie in a heap on the floor, blood pooling beneath his head.

Maru looked on in horror, both hands over his mouth.

…...

A formless, colorless nothingness. A shadow in green...a woman's voice. _"It's not your time yet, Yuichiro Hyakuya. Return to life, to the worlds of the living. Find him. Find him. Bring him home. Love him. Love him always, Yuichiro Hyakuya. Yuichiro. Yu..."_

…

"Yu? Yu?" Yu gradually came to consciousness. Mika was kneeling in front of him. "Yu, can you hear me?" He snapped his fingers in Yu's face. "C'mon, brother-mine, come back to me."

"M-Mika? What...what happened? Why are you here?"

"We got a distress call on your phone." Yu noticed, through the pain in his head, the base's security personnel going in and out of each room. "No voice, just the emergency button pushed. When we got here, we found you, like this." Yu looked around, painfully. He was still in his bedroom. His neck hurt to turn it, but…

"Who attacked you, Yu?"

"Huh? What?"

"Somebody threw you into the wall, Yu. Pretty damn hard, too; they almost put you _through_ the wall. The medics are at a loss as to how you survived. So who was it? Who did this to you, Yu? Was it a break-in?"

Now his memory was coming back. Maru, his dream, Yu telling him they had to talk it out...Maru accidentally flinging him away. "Uhm, I'm, I'm not sure, Mika. I don't think I got a good look at 'em. The only one I saw was wearing a mask."

"You don't lie worth a damn, Yuichiro Hyakuya."

He got up, with Mika's help. "Yeah, I know. I guess I need the practice."

"Practice on somebody else. You oughtta know you can't lie to me. Look." He guided a shaky Yu over into a corner. Yu noticed base security personnel combing through each room. His concern grew; where was Maru? He didn't see him anywhere.

"Why did you ask? Did you...did you find somebody else here?"

Mika hushed his voice, glancing over his shoulder. "No, and that worries me, Yu. It's clear two people have been living here...but you're the only one present. Where's whoever was living here with you?" He paused, waiting for an answer. "Was it that young woman you've been seen with, that you've been dating?"

Yu opened his mouth to say _he's not a woman_ and _we haven't been dating_ when he realized something more important. Maru wasn't here. That meant…

 _Find him. Find him._

He launched himself away from the nook Mika had led him to. "Mika, I, I gotta go! I gotta go...find someone! Right now!"

But Mika just put a restraining hand on Yu's shoulder. "Yu. No. You're not going anywhere. You just took a blow to the head that should have killed you, and nobody seems to know why it didn't. It's the worst snow of the year, and you are _not_ going out there! Who would you be looking for, anyway?" Another microsecond pause. "Did...is the person you're looking for, the same one that did this?"

"Mika, I can't stop to explain. I'll have to tell you all about it later. You'll have to fight me to keep me here. I can't tell you about it, but...

"I just know that if I don't go find him, he'll die."

….

Asuramaru was busy redefining the word "miserable."

Well, that was that. Now he'd never know that wonderful life he'd glimpsed, any version of it. Neither of them would. He'd killed Yuichiro Hyakuya.

The human he'd somehow come to love.

He was a demon, attuned to magic and the life forces of all things. He could see the life leaving Yu, virtually see his soul departing for unknown lands. And it was all his fault.

If only he'd told Yu earlier, or in some other way. But when Yu had asked him, point-blank, _do you love me, Maru?_ -it had just been too much to bear. Demons are supposed to be sickened by positive emotions, made weaker by them, but that wasn't happening here. Maybe it was part of the spell that had brought him here?

He didn't know how to react, how to answer that. Nothing in his experience had prepared him for a question like that.

He trudged onward through the snow, through the storm, far from the base. He had no destination in mind-oh, wait, yes he did: the coldest place he could find. He was already shivering, hugging himself reflexively; he thought he could feel icicles forming on his elbows.

He'd find that coldest spot (or one that would do), and then he'd just...lie down. Lie down, wrap himself around himself, and remember.

He remembered teasing Yu in the bath...except a lot of it wasn't just an act, was it? He remembered that kiss, there in the cafeteria that day. That hadn't really been an act, either, he realized now.

When he closed his eyes, he could see, like shadows on a wall, images of that incredible perfect life he could have had with Yu. Oh, there was danger, of course, and life was not all sweetness and light.

But he and Yu were together. And whatever happened, whether cooking dinner or fighting monsters, they had each other. They remained together.

 _Just like my Yu and I can never be now._

Here; here was a nice spot, right up against a rock. He curled himself into a fetal ball, shivering violently. And waited. As cold as it was, it shouldn't be long now.

If only.

If only he'd approached the matter differently. If only he'd told Yu how he was coming to feel. The crazy human would've just laughed at him, of course, but…

Or would he?

But whatever the case, just right then, he'd have given his heart and soul, just to hear the sound of Yu's laughter, one more time.

Just...one more time.

" _Maru!"_ Okay, thought Asuramaru, through the dimming haze his vision had become. I guess this is it. I'm hearing his voice. He's calling me to come with him, to the lands of the dead.

Oh, how I hope he doesn't hate me.

" _Maru!"_ This shout was louder. Maru didn't know whether to try to respond or not. That is, if he could; he'd already lost feeling in his feet.

"Maru!" Yu came up and dropped down by the Black Demon, reaching out to touch him. "Maru, what are you doing out here? C'mon, we've got to get back to the base!"

"Yu? B-but...you're d-d-dead! I s-saw you d-die!"

But Yu shook his head, and Maru noticed the huge bandage on it, right where he'd hit it. Images of a woman in green slipped past his mind. _Not your time, Ashura Tepes._ Had he dreamed about her? Who was she? "No, Maru, I don't know how, but I'm not dead. And, more importantly, neither are you. Now come on. We've got to get back to the base."

"C-can't. F-feet...y-you sh-should l-leave me..."

"Oh, now you already know how _that's_ gonna go down." He took off his jacket, and wrapped it around Maru as best he could, despite the demon's protests. Picked him up in a fireman's carry, Maru's legs and arms wrapped around him from behind. "Come on, just hold onto me. Just hold on, a little longer. I'll get you back home."

"Yu, don't! Y-you can't c-carry us b-both! You, you'll freeze, out here, yourself!"

"Forget it, Maru. I don't care about that. I just know I've gotta get you back home. No matter what.

"And," he said, stumbling through the snow, the cold beginning to freeze his feet, even through his heavy bundling, "If you go into Forever, I'm going with you."

"Don't…" said Asuramaru weakly. "You…"

"You may as well not say it, Maru. I'm going home with you-one way or another."

Onward through the ever-worsening snowstorm he trudged. Trudged, and trudged, and trudged. Until finally, he succumbed to the cold, and fell in a snowdrift. Then, barely conscious, he gathered the little demon close to him, trying to warm him with his body heat as best he could, Maru's face resting up against his own, his arms around Yu's neck, each of them trying desperately to give what little body heat they had left to the other.

A shadow fell over them.

 _Find him, Ashura Tepes. Find him. Love him. Love him always._

… _.._

Asuramaru's consciousness slowly, hesitantly, swam back into his head. Nobody could blame it; it had had some rough times in there, lately. He groggily opened his eyes to see two forms standing over him: one was Mika's, his face stern and noticeably angry, and the other…" _Gekkoin_? What are you doing here?"

Yoichi Saotome's Black Demon grunted. "Saving your butt. Make that butts, plural." And he gestured to the other side of the bed Asuramaru was lying on. Asuramaru turned his head, to see Yu lying in bed beside him, the electric blanket tucked over both of them, the indicator turned up. It just then dawned on him where they were.

" _Yu!_ " He tried to turn over, but was still too weak to do so. "He-he's alright, isn't he?"

"He's fine. He's just taking longer to come around. You're a vampire; you heal faster, that's all."

Asuramaru managed to turn partially over, enough so he could brush his fingers against Yu's face. "You c-come on back to me, Yu."

Gekkoin looked across the bed at Mika, his face a mask of distaste. "Disgusting, isn't it?"

"No," replied Yuichiro's best friend. "Surprising, but not disgusting. But then, I guess I have a different perspective on things than you do. How did you get to be here, in the physical world, Asuramaru? For that matter," he turned addressing the giant form of Yoichi's demon, "How did _you_ get to be here, physically, as well?"

"I have no idea how loverboy here," Gekkoin said, nodding at Asuramaru, "got here. My situation is...a little different. It's what you humans call a 'long story.'" Another nod at Asuramaru, who was still trying to turn over towards Yu. "I suspect his is, too."

"But...but, Gekkoin," said Asuramaru, his arm around Yu, "Why did you come save us?"

"Your human's little friend gave me no peace whatsoever until I went and found the both of you. Brought you back to your living arrangements here." He gestured overhead.

"Speaking _of_ ," said Mika, "I think there'll be some questions, when the both of you recover enough." He looked sternly at the form of his sleeping friend. "Yes, and I've got a few words to share with him, _personally_."

"Don't...don't blame him," pleaded Asuramaru. "It was all my fault."

"No, it wasn't," said weak voice. Yuichiro was just then coming to consciousness. "D-don't listen to him about that."

"Yu!" Maru pulled him closer, even as Yu reached towards him, as well. "You, you had me so worried! B-but are you alright?"

"Getting there. Glad...to see you, Maru." He looked up at the demon's tear-stained face. "M-makes coming back worth it." He paused, gathering his strength. The other two, even Gekkoin, remained silent, sensing this was something that didn't need to be interrupted. "Just...just don't ever do me that way again, 'kay?"

"Yu...you can't be feeling what I'm sensing from you. Not only am I a demon, we're the same sex!"

He pulled him to him weakly. "Demon, Shmemon. Maru, it's _you_ I love, not your genitalia _._

"I'll never leave you, Maru. Don't you ever leave me."

Gekkoin's face was scrunching up again. "Gods. If I stay here much longer, I'll hurl chunks. I'm leaving it in your hands, Hyakuya," he said, indicating Mika. "You take it from here." And with that, he disappeared in a flare of light.

Mika turned his gaze on the couple in bed. A stern gaze. "Yes, Yu. We...need to have a talk, I think, about the importance of _trusting_ each other, don't you think? You didn't have to go this all alone, all this time."

"I know, Mika, and I'm sorry. It's just...it's not something that comes up in casual dinner conversation, you know? 'Hey, Mika, guess what? I just brought a Black Demon over into the physical realm! Say, you gonna eat that?'"

Mika actually laughed. "Okay, I guess I can see how that could be kinda awkward. But, Yu…" He looked at the couple in bed, Asuramaru holding Yu protectively, with Yu's arm around him, just as protectively. Each of them prepared to take the entire consequences of whatever offenses had been given, to shield the other completely. A demon and a human...in love. _Nobody_ would have _ever_ expected _or_ believed it, but he couldn't deny the clear evidence of his senses. He sighed. "Well, perhaps all that can wait. And if you're worried about the legal part...turns out, you were never _officially_ discharged from being bonded with the sword of Asuramaru, so _technically_ , you didn't actually steal anything. You just…" he waved a hand. "Reclaimed some lost property." He looked at them again. "But I think you two have some more important things to talk about, don't you? Just take your time recuperating,'kay?" He moved towards the door. "I'll be back in a bit. You two rest. And I _do_ mean rest. No hanky-panky. You're not up to it, yet."

"Yes, mom," said Yu, a slight smile on his face.

"I'll 'yes, mom' you, if you don't behave, Yuichiro Hyakuya. Besides, there's something I need to talk to you both about. Something very serious. Got a call from our old pal Guren Ichinose.

"We may be moving out, soon. There's something going on up north. Something big." And with that, he left, leaving two very puzzled beings in his wake.

Finally, Yu looked back over at Maru, who still had a protective arm around him. "Wonder what _that_ was all about?"

"Oh, who cares? Yu, why'd you come after me, anyway? You could'a died! I've been nothing but a problem to you-*" But Yu put up a finger to his lips, silencing him.

"Don't even start with that. You oughtta know the answer to that, by now. I love you, Maru, and always will. As long as I have you for my Demon, I'll always be your Knight. I don't care if you don't or can't love me in return, I'll still love y-*" But Maru put _his_ lips to Yu's, silencing _him._

It was a rather clumsy kiss, not like the one they'd shared in the cafeteria, but it made Yu's heart soar. When they finally broke apart, Asuramaru looked Yu in the eyes, his eyes shining. "I'm finding out this 'love' thing has a lot going for it."

"It sure does." Maru's kiss had been better than any defibrillator, and far less painful. Then his face changed. "Hey!" He looked down, underneath the covers. "What the hell happened to our clothes?!"

…

 _He's my very own big, dumb klutz of a human, and I never know what catastrophe he'll start next. I just know that, somehow, somewhere along the way, he's become very precious to me._

 _..._

 _The End. For now._


End file.
